Look Harden is old (bball standards) and has many years of booze and abuse on that body of his, but the reality is that refs also no longer call games the same because of new rule changes and that is also part of the decline.
They call the game more appropriately now IMO. So if a better called nba game is part of his decline that’s not a good look. There’s a lot of guys who get massive amounts of respect that never won rings. IMO, if James doesn’t have some sort of rebirth and/or win a ring as a top player on a team, James’ career will not be remembered kindly by most. He’ll be remembered as a guy who benefited during an era where the refs didn’t call the game properly. That’s how a lot of people view him already.
Which I do not think is entirely true, when he was the primary ball handler and primary scorer knowing he didnt need to be accountable to anyone on the floor, he was an all time great. I think he physically is not the same, or we would see more of the step back 3's and various moves he had in his bag. He had those hamstring injuries issues lingering since he left Houston and it seems to be an ongoing thing. He has a lot of achievements which are not related to fouls, he is a top 3 point shooter of all time, and may be 2nd all time when its said and done on attempts made. I think having an MVP trophy is huge for people remembering you as an all time great, vs someone people will forget about. He will likely be in a tier above the Reggie Millers / Ray Allens of the world, and maybe in the same tier as Paul Pierce, Carmelo, etc. It may be that he is better coming off the bench and running that unit, knowing he can be more aggressive and not need to defer as much.
I still think he is a Rockets GOAT despite his playoff record. However, you can’t deny there was a bit of apathy on his part and a bit of one dimensionality from him.
I mean I don't think a single person will deny he's the second greatest Rocket of all time. He just has very severe flaws for a player of his level.
He needs to decline his option and sign with the Lakers for the minimum, to resurrect his market value. Just like Oladipo in Miami.
This guy is going to **** up the Rockets future. The tank was put in place for a reason where we can put the best team together and win like the 'Stros.
Harden is fool’s gold. He’s only going to get you to the playoffs before being eliminated. We’ve seen this story before. People are stupid if they think he’s going to be a mentor to Jalen and Jabari when he proved he was a poor leader when he was in Houston. Also, he’s going to want Stone to bring in other free agents so we will have trade some of our developing players and draft capital to bring in a more competitive team for Harden. It won’t work and we would be compromising our rebuild efforts in the process. Stone needs to be finding tomorrow’s NBA superstars, not the past.
James Harden is not the leader that LeBron James is. Lebron left Cleveland because they weren’t doing what should be done to put a competitive team together. The Rockets catered to Harden’s every demand bringing in Dwight Howard, then Chris Paul, and then Russell Westbrook with each time ending in failure. Then he forced his way out. Thinking that Harden has changed and will somehow bring a championship to Houston now is idiotic.
Idiotic? That's rather aggressive. Wishful thinking? Sure. I agree Harden isn't the leader Lebron is/was. I also agree that the situations aren't identical. But they're very similar. Guy in his prime leaves, team hits rock bottom and finds the next generational player, then resigns Lebron. If we didn't have to gut the team, and were able to keep all our young talent and simply add Harden -- I have high confidence we would be contending again. Though if Harden has the same attitude as his last season here, definitely not.
What makes you think Harden has matured since he left? He left Brooklyn and is now threatening to leave Philly. There's a reason why this dude never won a championship...it's not because of talent - it's his maturity.
I disagree that maturity has much to do with why he hasn't won. You can argue that his lack of maturity lead to him bailing on teams early. That he wasn't mentally tough enough to push through and persevere. But I disagree that he's "immature" or that his lack of maturity is why he hasn't won. He had his share of bad exit game performances, but for the most part he always played exceptionally well in the playoffs -- particularly given the amount of defensive attention given to him. He's not the reason we never won.
Catered to his every whim…. We all remember that press conference fondly…. “I demand the best team possible BUT for the owners sake I demand we do not go into the luxury tax. I don’t care if that’s usually what it takes to win.” He definitely got his wish.
He doesn't have the clout of LBJ. He doesn't have superstar friends or he isn't really friends with them. Look, Lebron was born in Ohio so his ties with that land is true.
have you seen hardens basketball reference page and his similarity scores, harden def has the clout of lebron in the league. he just doesnt use it because he is too focused on basketball
I'm not sure how that matters. Did Lebron bring superstar friends with him to CLE? Why does he need clout if we are (hopefully) pairing him up with guys we already have, mostly?
